Translator: Christopher Vidler Reviewer: Denise RQ
Can a business be a force for good?
Can we reconnect those apparently two distant dots?
Business is the most powerful man-made force on the planet.
But when most of us think about it,
we directly relate it to making money, profit solely.
And why not use it to create economic value,
in a way that also creates a value for society,
by addressing its needs and challenges?
And there's this gap in our thinking,
where 'doing good' becomes linked to a specific label,
rather than ensuring every single business
has a positive impact on the people and the planet.
When I decided to focus our company
on helping children with developmental disorders,
besides upsetting our investor,
the question I got many times was,
"Are you going to be a nonprofit now?"
Why do we think doing good means we have to be a charity?
We have to change that, I strongly believe we have to change that.
Just imagine: you can create a successful business
and make a significant difference at the same time,
a purpose-driven business.
Just put charity on the one side, and for-profit business on the other,
and in the middle, you will see amazing hybrid models
as the greatest opportunity of our lifetime.
A year ago, I had the chance
to participate in this program for entrepreneurs
at the Singularity University,
which is about empowering participants with the tools, knowledge, and skills
to positively impact billions of people.
And the first thing I heard from Peter Diamandis,
co-founder of Singularity University, was,
"You want to become a billionaire? Help a billion people."
And to be honest, at first, I had a problem with that sentence,
because I couldn't get it;
how can I make good and make money at the same time?
And I needed almost a year to understand
that I can either fight against the system,
or use it as a force to bring the change.
And there are amazing opportunities for that
with the continuous growth of human population.
According to the United Nations,
the human world population will reach 9.6 billion people by 2050,
and with the life expectancy projected to grow to 81 years,
growth in urban areas, scarcity of resources
- and I could go on and on -
we just need new and better ways of doing things, new energy sources
as we drawn out all oil and gas left.
[We need] better healthcare systems with [better specialists],
access to good education,
as we no longer can expect to have the same job throughout our life,
and with population growth,
we will hit a new wave of poverty and inequality.
And what I want you to understand from this talk
is that the world's biggest problems
are the world's biggest business opportunities.
Think about that.
And with my understanding of how the business should look like,
I believe we contribute to redefining it by what we do.
But our path wasn't so clear from the beginning,
because we started with research on recognizing emotions
by analyzing how we behave,
and the purpose was to help companies sell better.
After many months,
we had a working prototype and the first potential customers,
and the problem I had was,
I knew they would use it only to increase their income,
by taking advantage of the knowledge that we would provide.
And I wanted to do something meaningful.
So we sat down with our team,
and, after a day of brainstorming, we decided to pivot.
We decided to drop what we had and start from scratch.
And already having significant knowledge
on what we can get from analyzing our behavior,
we came up with this long-shot idea: if we can recognize emotions,
maybe we could also recognize health threats to help others.
So we decided to combine behavioral science,
artificial intelligence, and gaming,
to detect early signs of developmental disorders in children,
like autism, ADHD, and others.
Because still, most of them are diagnosed too late,
and early diagnosis and early intervention
can have an amazing and big impact on them, and their families, and society.
Actually, at that point, I didn't know a thing about developmental disorders,
after we made this pivot.
And you know what? This is what Mr. Jerzy mentioned in his presentation.
Not knowing, not being an expert, was an advantage
because I didn't know the barriers, I didn't know it can't be done
so I could be creative, and I could push things.
So we designed the first studies with children,
and my responsibility was to bring therapeutic centers and kindergartens in,
where we could actually conduct those studies.
And I remember thinking
how the hell am I going to do that if I know nothing about it?
So I started googling at first, and a month later,
we had ten centers that agreed to cooperate with us,
with much more to come later on.
And today we have a finalized, ready solution,
which is a behavioral test that uses touch-based gameplay
to detect early signs of autism in children as young as two.
It's validated, empirically-based, and proven to be 90% accurate.
It's already being used as a screening tool,
and we are working on making this a part of a standard test
for two-to-five years old done by pediatricians.
And I believe this is what happens
when people perceive what you do as important and valuable:
something they can relate to, be attracted by, so they simply help you.
Where making money securely, obviously is important,
but we all seek for a deeper purpose,
we all want our jobs to be more than just making money.
And this shift in thinking is already happening
with the millennial generation.
To give you an example, a story:
a few weeks ago, a guy from a Berlin-based company called me
trying to sell me a business intelligence solution,
and after we had a nice talk,
he wrote me an email saying he wanted to work with us,
as he found what we do important and so amazing.
We have so many stories like that, doing what we do.
[WE MUST BE THE CHANGE WE SEEK IN THE WORLD]
To wrap up, we have amazing and brilliant people here in Krakow,
well-educated, eager to risk, and start their own businesses.
We also have a vibrant start-up ecosystem;
as I've heard, often called "Dragons' Valley", right?
So imagine if just some of you here today started a business
- as a founder or as an investor - that solves some significant problem;
we would not only change the face of business together,
but also make this planet a bit happier one to live in.
And I tell you, you would enter the most amazing journey for yourself,
of personal and professional growth.
So using this opportunity of being on the stage today, I challenge you:
be the change you seek in the world.
Thank you.
(Applause)